Grange: Home on the Web

Ease of doing business - EODB, for short - is the working mantra of Grange Insurance (Columbus, Ohio; $1.2 billion in revenue), according to Charlie Carter, vice president and CIO. The "ease" is provided to Grange's 1,200 independent agents via a new extranet Web site, www.grangeagent.com. "The site has an agent-centric design and approach - we asked agents for their input and agency principles as the site was being developed," reports Carter.

Built from the ground up on a Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.) .NET server platform, the site enables agents to perform automated processes and functions, including policy quoting, finding claims information, making payments, and accessing forms and manuals. The site includes a network bridge that allows agents to use their own agency management system to directly access the Grange system.

"One of the biggest returns we see with grangeagent.com is cost savings due to [completing] more transactions faster," says Terry Kelso, principal, Associated Insurance Agencies. "Since there is no down time and we can process changes with customers right on the phone, Grange is one of the easiest and most dependable customers we represent."